Junior Open Wheel Talent

The Skip Barber National drivers completed Rounds 5 & 6 of their national championship at Thunderbolt Raceway in New Jersey Motorsports Park last weekend.

The hard charger of Round 5 is Connor De Phillippi who improved 5 positions to win the race by a 0.158 seconds over Kyle Marcelli. De Phillippi had an outstanding weekend as he swept both rounds of the Skip Barber National Championship at NJMP. He also set the fastest lap of the race in Saturday’s event. He started 6th and crossed the stripe 1st. Skip Barber Karting Scholarship winner Court Vernon finished 3rd.

The hard charger of Round 6 is Brett Smrz–who also improved five positions. The 18-year-old race driver had an impressive run to finish 3rd after starting 8th. Smrz had a busy weekend as he ran both a Skip Barber National car and a Mazda MX-5 car. I didn’t take the time to punch all the results into my hard charger spreadsheet, but, if I’m not mistaken…Brett was also the hard charger in Sunday’s Mazda MX-5 Cup. As stated above, Connor De Phillippi won the race–sweeping the competition. Pennsylvania’s Sage Karam, who is also a Skip Barber Karting Scholarship winner, had an impressive drive and finished the race in 2nd place. This is Karam’s best finish of the year and moved him up 6 positions in the overall championship (15th-9th). Honorable mention should go to Dennis Trebing who also improved 5 positions in Round 6, he started 17th and crossed the stripe in 12th.(photo: Rick Roso/SkipBarber.com)